Print Page
Science Fiction and Fantasy (ENLT 1156)
Total Credits:
3
Lecture Credits:
3
Description:
This course reviews selected readings and films from the evolving genres of science fiction and fantasy. You will learn how to analyze these texts from a variety of viewpoints: aesthetic, historical, feminist, psychoanalytical and ethical. You will examine the works as reflections of real contemporary issues in environmental, technological, cultural, economic and political spheres. Through
discussions, writings and projects, you will connect the concerns raised in the works to your own society and its values.
Topical Outline:
1. Science fiction and fantasy genre: literature or pulp fiction?
2. History of science fiction and fantasy
3. Critical approaches to analysis: historical, feminist, aesthetic, political, psychoanalytical
4. Science fiction and fantasy as vehicles for social criticism: politics, environment, culture, gender, class, race
5. Subgenre: utopias/dystopias, prophecy, alternate realities, technology/science, and mythology
Learning Outcomes:
1. Articulate important themes, styles, concerns, authors, films and novels of the genre
2. Apply critical approaches to specific texts
3. Understand and articulate how specific texts both reflect their own historical contexts and transcend those contexts by exploring broader moral, political themes
4. Examine, articulate, and apply their own ethical views
5. Understand and apply core concepts (e.g. politics, rights and obligations, justice, liberty) to specific issues
6. Analyze and reflect on the ethical dimensions of legal, social, and scientific issues
Prerequisites:
ENGL 1110 or
ENGA 1110
MnTC: